Today the former Lee’s Lakeside site is under renovations for a World of Beer
After originally opening in the fifties as an apartment hotel, Eola Plaza, and converted into a hotel by the end of the decade, the Cherry Plaza Hotel came full circle and converted back to apartments. It operates today as Post Parkside apartments.
Before the boom of apartment and condo life in Downtown Orlando, this was one of the few somewhat urban style apartment buildings in the area. Especially in the 1990’s, the proximity to Lake Eola and the reasonable rents made it a sort of funky, eclectic place to live. In fact in 1992, the Orlando Sentinel referred to it as “Downtown’s Tower of Funkiness”. Today, it looks like a small player surrounded by new condominium and highrise apartments.
On the ground level facing the lake, Lee’s Lakeside operated as one of Orlando’s most popular restaurants from the 1980’s until it closed in 2005. The space has been an unsuccessful restaurant or two since then, and is currently being remoded for World of Beer’s newest location.
The Eola Plaza in the early 50’s and the shores of Lake Eola 60 years later.
From Eola Plaza to the Cherry Plaza Hotel
This is story of apartment building (Eola Plaza) turned hotel (Cherry Plaza Hotel) and then turned back to apartments (Post Parkside). In 1950, a new, modern high-rise dominated the shores of Lake Eola. That year, Eola Plaza opened as one of the tallest buildings in the area and one of the first built with poured concrete. The surrounding area was largely two-story homes at the time. That soon changed as many of which became shops and inns when tourism and traffic increased.
Eola Plaza offered more than just apartments, but brought commerce to the area. Storefronts were on the street level of Eola Plaza. In a 2000 piece in the Orlando Sentinel, Joy Wallace Dickinson listed those early 1950’s businesses as being Eola Pharmacy, Plaza Petites, the Eola Plaza Flower Shop, Jeanne Elkins Dress Shop, Markham’s Restaurant, the Mary Bradshaw Beauty Salon, and The Eola Plaza Bamboo Room, a night club.
In the mid 50’s, William Cherry, chairman of Cherry Broadcasting company, owned radio stations WDBO-FM and WDBO-AM and WDBO-TV (currently Channel 6). He added this building to his portfolio, and the Eola Plaza became the Cherry Plaza Hotel. A 1200 seat convention facility, which included the Egyptian Room, was added making the hotel an attractive location for out of town groups and local community events.
Its time as the Cherry Plaza was the hotel’s most interesting. In the 60’s the hotel was in its prime and important guests visited and the many notable events were held in the Egyptian Room. One of these events could be considered Day One of Orlando becoming the world’s family vacation capital.
Long before Walt Disney World was planned, the New York Times wrote about growing tourism in Orlando. Noting that over a quarter of a million people flew into Orlando in 1959, a 26% increase from the year prior. The number of hotel rooms in town had doubled in two years to over 1800. The Times wrote that more hotel rooms were added to Orlando when, during the conversion to Cherry Plaza, some Eola Plaza apartments were divided into multiple hotel rooms.
President Johnson was the first U.S. President to spend the night in Orlando while in office, and he stayed at the Cherry Plaza in 1964. The Jones High School Band were part of the welcoming festivities. Greeted with a large crowd in front of the hotel, LBJ climbed onto the hood of a police cruiser to announce how happy he was to be in Orlando.
That visit wasn’t LBJ’s first visit here. As a senator and a Vice Presidential candidate running with John F. Kennedy, he hosted Democratic campaign workers at a luncheon at the Cherry Plaza about five years earlier.
Walt Disney walking into the Cherry Plaza to make an announcement that would forever change Orlando. Source: floridamemory.com
In 1966, actor Danny Thomas hosted a reception in the Egyptian Room at the Cherry Plaza. Thomas was one of the original owners of the Miami Dolphins and had the players in Orlando for an event. He was in town building excitement about the new Dolphins, Florida’s first professional football team.
The event with the greatest impact on Orlando was a November 1965 press conference also held in the Egyptian Room at the Cherry Plaza that included Walt Disney, his brother Roy, and the Governor of Florida, Haydon Burns. This was Walt’s only public appearance in Orlando. After secretly purchasing land in Central Florida, he announced plans for Disney World. He promised attendees that it would be grander than Disneyland and would employ 4000 people. Disney died a little over a year later without seeing the growth his announcement brought to this community.
For a few years in the 1970’s, there was a Columbia Restaurant, part of the oldest restaurant in Florida, located in the Cherry Plaza. The family that owned the now 105 year old restaurant said a church objected to liquor sales and forced is closure. Later, Lee’s Lakeside opened in the same restaurant space overlooking Lake Eola. Restaurateur Lee Rose ran this local favorite for over 20 years. Lee’s Lakeside closed in 2005 not long after her death.
The Cherry Plaza Hotel’s story was too much for one blog post. The next post to Orlando Retro will be about the Cherry Plaza Hotel’s role in a part of Orlando history that is remembered with less delight than Uncle Walt’s visit.
Before: This postcard was probably already old when it was mailed in 1985. It looks more like the sixties. While it’s difficult to read the date on the postmark, there is a 14 cent stamp on the back. That was the going rate for postcard stamps in ’85.
The buildings pictured on the front are much older than the mid-eighties. The brick high-rise in the center: Orlando Federal Savings & Loan Association (1924); blue tiled building to the right: Orange County Courthouse Annex (earlier post) (1959); and far right: First Church of Christ Scientist (1928).
Reverse of the Postcard
“Greetings from cool Florida.” The card was mailed on a rare Florida day with temperatures in the 20s. The postcard writer mentioned freezing orange groves and hoped there wasn’t any snow in New York state.
Today: Our Orlando skyline has grown up around Lake Eola. If the updated image were an actual postcard from that angle, it would need to be oversized to squeeze in the urban growth. Because orange groves are not as prevalent as they once were, a picture of a Clermont subdivision might be an appropriate “today” picture in place of the oranges.
Minute Maid Headquarters 1957 and the building today 2013
Minute Maid Headquarters
From the back of the postcard: “National Headquarters of Minute Maid Corporation in Orlando, FLa. Located near the heart of Florida’s rolling citrus grove country, at the intersection of 441 and Rte. 50, this beautiful building is the center of all operations of Minute Maid, world’s largest grower and processor of citrus products — Minute Maid and Snow Crop frozen concentrates, and Hi-C canned fruit drinks.”
This history of Minute Maid goes back to World War II, when research created a new method to concentrate orange juice. The US Army awarded a contract to a new company, Florida Foods, to provide an orange powder that could be reconstituted into juice. The war ended before the product made it to the troops, so Florida Foods turned to the consumer market. Florida Foods became Vacuum Foods and later renamed Minute Maid Corporation.
Minute Maid’s headquarters were built at the corner of OBT and Colonial in the mid-50’s. Coca-Cola purchased Minute Maid in 1960 for its first venture outside sodas. In 1967, Coca-Cola moved the headquarters to Houston, TX.
Having been used by Orange County Public Schools in recent years, today the building sits empty. Plans are currently underway to locate a Wawa convenience store on this site.
Top: Gary’s Duck Inn and the hovering platter of shrimp Bottom: Gary’s is long gone
Gary’s Duck Inn
The postcard features one of the six remodeled versions of Gary’s Duck Inn. Above it, hovers a platter of fried shrimp. For very close to 50 years, Gary’s Duck Inn was an Orlando restaurant institution and served up their popular fried shrimp on Orange Blossom Trail. It would be an understatement to say that Orange Blossom Trail was a very different stretch of road when Gary’s Duck Inn opened in 1945.
At the time, this was a scenic stretch of road for those traveling north and south through Orlando. For many, a motor inn on Highway 441 was a destination itself. When the restaurant opened, it opened small with seating for 15 people. The popularity of the restaurant over the decades led to 6 different remodels,grew to a capacity of 400 seats, employed 90 people, and served celebrities such as Dolly Parton and Bob Hope.
Gary Starling started the restaurant and operated it for about 20 years. It catered to a loyal customer base of locals and tourists. The menu of reasonable priced seafood was a hit during the era before chain restaurants were common. In 1963, Mr. Starling sold Gary’s Duck Inn to investors that included Bill Darden and Charlie Woodsby. Five year’s later, Gary’s Duck Inn was the
inspiration Darden and Woodsby used to create Red Lobster restaurants. After inspiring a national chain restaurant, Gary’s Duck Inn continued to operate for another three decades.
As the years went by, fewer and fewer tourist (and locals for that matter) traveled down the Orange Blossom Trail. The area was in decline and became better known for stripper bars than a good plate of fried seafood. David Siegel of timeshare and “Queen of Versailles” fame made an attempt to purchase the restaurant for $375,000 and even attempted to recreate Gary’s by opening a restaurant called Fisherman’s Cove with some of the managers from Gary’s. Neither was successful, Gary’s Duck Inn shut its doors in 1994. Along OBT, there are still several weathered reminders of its past days as a tourist destination. Sadly, Gary’s Duck Inn is not one of them. Demolished long ago, on the site today sits a 7-11 and a Dollar General.
Looking North on Orange Avenue at South Street Intersection 1960’s and 2013
The Postcard
The view looking north up Orange Avenue is framed by city hall on the left and the mid-century modern American Federal Savings and Loan building (AKA The Round Building). Tall palm trees center the postcard, behind them are the Downtown Motor Inn, Sun Bank and the American Fire & Casualty Insurance buildings.
The view today looks similar to the 1960’s postcard even though all but one of the buildings in the postcard have been demolished. City hall was replaced with our current city hall. SunBank – now SunTrust – rebuilt near the same spot. The Downtowner and the American Fire & Casualty buildings are long gone. Now the Grand Bohemian sits on the corner. And at least for today, the former American Federal Savings is the only remaining building.
The Round Building (American Federal Savings and Loan Association)
Today: Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center under construction behind the Round Building.
In 1961, American Federal Savings and Loan Association purchased 60,000 square feet of property across from City Hall for $400,000. At the time, there were still some homes along this stretch of Orange Ave. A few houses and a four-unit apartment building were on the site when the bank bought the land. The close proximity to Lake Lucerne probably made this a very livable area, which would not be true today with the 408 Express overhead.
Robert Murphy, a local Harvard educated architect who later founded HuntonBrady Architects, designed the building. HuntonBrady continues to design buildings today. Their credits include Team Disney, The Mennello Museum of American Art, and the Orange County Convention Center expansion. Mr. Murphy designed the bank as a round building encircled in decorative concrete panels (the bris de soleil). It was originally built at only two stories. With equally important east and west entrances, the round design helped keep an even traffic flow. A head teller from the bank had the idea for a semi circular teller counter being the most efficient way to serve customers. A skylight in the center added natural light to the bank lobby. When it first opened, the bank created further attraction by putting $1 million in bills on display in the lobby.
American Federal Savings and Loan in the early 1960’s before the additional floors were added.
In the early 70’s, additional glass enclosed stories were added to the building. This changed the appearance to a sort of office tower rising from the decorative concrete. Visual Ephemera recently quoted Mr. Murphy’s wife as stating he was not fond of the added floors.
Left: Bris de Soleil panels being installed in 1960’s. Right: First panel being removed in 2013
The days are numbered for The Round Building. Today, three old palms tower over the dry fountain at the west entrance. It will be demolished to make room for the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center currently under construction. There are efforts underway to remove and repurpose the exterior panels. One section of the bris de soleil panels has already been removed. If the efforts are successful, the familiar design will live elsewhere in Orlando as a reminder of this unique landmark.
The caption of the postcard reads “Orange Avenue looking North”. However, north is the other direction and this postcard view is looking south. The Angebilt and San Juan Hotels provide the backdrop to a time when Orange Ave was lined with department stores like Sears and Rutland’s.
Rutland’s and the Corner of Orange & Washington
Birdseye View Orlando Map 1884 Click to Enlarge
In the heart of downtown, Orange Avenue and Washington Street are among the oldest streets in the city. A 129 year old map shows at least a two-story building in the southwest corner of the intersection. (Near the red arrow in the thumbnail) This building may be the county jail as some books reference a jail being built on the corner in 1884*. Braxton Beacham bought the jail in 1917 and later built the Beacham Theater and a few stores on the property.
By the 1930’s the horse traveled dirt roads were brick covered and lined with businesses. The St. Charles Hotel was built in the vicinity. On the southeast corner, where Rutland’s would go, was a gas station and an Economy Cab taxi stand.
In 1940, Joseph Rutland, a Winter Park businessman, bought this lot for $78,000 to build and open his menswear store. Rutland’s had a wide selection of menswear brands and custom tailored suits. In its 30 years of doing business at this location, Rutland’s built a large customer base by selling the better brands of men’s clothes and providing well-known customer service. Future U.S. senator Mel Martinez at one time was among the service staff having sold shoes at this location.
The building is Art Moderne style and was built by F. Earl Deloe. Deloe was a local architect who started his career in Orlando at 19 working as draftsman for an architect. He served in World War I also as a draftsman, and later worked for the Army in World War II as an architect. In fact, before he went to work for the Army, some of the construction for the Rutland’s building took place during World War II. Other buildings to his credit are the College Park Baptist Church (1945), Church of Our Lady of Lourdes (1931) in Melbourne, and an art moderne remodel in 1949 of the Sun-Ray Cinema in Jacksonville. He continued with a long career as an architect in Orlando until his retirement in 1965 and lived out his years in College Park. The Rutland’s building is perhaps his most recognizable work and one of the few remaining buildings representing this era.
Originally two stories, three more floors were added to the building in the 1950’s for added retail and office space. In the years to come, shopping shifted from downtown and moved to the malls. In the 60’s, Rutland’s moved its business from this location to a few malls in the area. The last Rutland’s location remained in business until 1998. When its last store closed at the Fashion Square Mall, the Orlando Business Journal wrote that Rutland’s $500 to $2000 suits (in 1998 prices) could not compete with the lower prices of places like Mens Wearhouse. Rutland’s was another local company unable to compete with the low cost products of national chain.
Orange and Washington Today
Most of the buildings still stand in the southeast and southwest corners of Orange Avenue and Washington Streets that are in the postcard. The Rutland’s building now houses Seacoast National Bank on the lower level. Across Orange Avenue, the buildings built by Baxter Beacham in the 1920’s are today an assortment of bars, such as Independent Bar, and entertainment venues, like The Social. The Sears seen in the foreground is long gone and the 20 floor Regions Bank Tower was constructed on the site in 1986.
Sources
*”From Florida Sand to the City Beautiful, A Historical Record of Orlando, FL” E.H. Gore 1949
Orlando Business Journal, April 27th 1998
Orlando: In Vintage Postcards, Lynn M. Homan, Thomas Reill 2001
Orange County Courthouse Annex in 1960’s, and the same view today looking at Heritage Square
The Postcard
The postcard depicts the Court House Annex. The two colors of exterior tile made it look modern for the era. Across the street is a 5 cents parking lot, which is the property where the library stands today. If you’ve been downtown recently, 5 cents won’t get you 5 minutes on the meter.
Orange County Court House and Annex
The property on which the Orange County Courthouse Annex stood has been significant since Orlando’s earliest days. A log cabin on this site in 1857 served as the first courthouse. Orlando’s original city limits were set to be one mile to the north, south, east, and west of this spot.
Several courthouse came and went as the community grew. In 1892, a large red brick Victorian Style courthouse with a clock tower stood here. That Victorian style courthouse was replaced by this structure in 1959. The modern-for-its-time annex was built next to the 1927 courthouse. While the aqua exterior may have been more Miami Beach than Orlando, the building brought a contemporary edge to downtown.
On the fifth floor was a jail featuring a progressive kitchen where meals were prepared by prisoners for the 165 inmates in the facility. This is also the building where Ted Bundy’s trial was held in the 80’s.
During construction in 1959, a time capsule was buried in the courthouse. It contained artifacts from the decade such as a rubber stamp from Christmas, FL and 50 pennies. (Today that time capsule awaits its 2059 opening at the History Center).
Although the annex was constructed to last for a century, it barely lasted 40 years. Asbestos made the building unsafe. In 1989, the county moved 300 employees and 200 inmates out of the annex. Some courtrooms were temporarily moved to the Angebilt Hotel. The cost of removing the asbestos was high. It was an estimated $30 million to make it safe enough to use again. In the end, only the first three floors were cleaned up and used again while the current courthouse was under construction.
The annex was demolished and the site was converted into Orlando Heritage Park by the early 2000’s.
Heritage Square today on the site of the 1959 Courthouse Annex
In 1908, our postcard writer, Murdy, mailed a post card from Orlando to Clara in Watertown, WI announcing, “This is where we landed.” The writer went on to express concern the postcard was a duplicate, “I wish I could remember what kind of postals I sent you. Am afraid you’ll duplicates… Love to all. Murdy”
Click to read reverse
Church Street Station
Few buildings have been in Orlando longer than this train depot. From the 1800’s when Church Street was a dirt road, through the the 1970’s and 1980’s when it was surrounded by one of Florida’s top tourist attractions, until today where it awaits the future Sunrail riding along its tracks.
In the earliest days of Orlando, the first train depot stood here as a wooden platform servicing the area’s first rail service. The route was Orlando to Sanford. Tickets were sold across the street in a warehouse owned by Joseph Bumby. Bumby, one of Orlando’s early business men and citrus growers, later built Bumby Hardware across the street (in the building where Hamburger Marys is today).
In the late 1880’s, the depot (as pictured on the postcard above) was built for the South Florida Railroad. This train route went as far “south” as Tampa. The Atlantic Coast Line acquired the route in 1902. The Church Street station was a passenger depot until 1926. That year a new passenger station, now an Amtrak Station and still in use, was built on Sligh Boulevard. From 1926 until 1972, this station on Church Street continued on as a ticket outlet and freight station. By the 7o’s, the buildings to the west were mostly abandoned and the station itself was falling into disrepair.
A young businessman, Bob Snow, had success in Pensacola, FL creating a nighttime entertainment complex from derelict buildings. He purchased many of the buildings surrounding the train station and brought the success of Rosie O’Grady’s Good Time Emporium to Orlando. Rather than just restore old buildings — he refurbished and redefined them with a grand attention to detail. Snow purchased antiques and furnishing from points all over the world — chandeliers reclaimed from a Boston bank, painted glass from a pub in England — to create the Church Street Station entertainment complex.
Church Street Station during its heyday
The project was a great success and brought people back into downtown Orlando. In the 1980’s, Church Street had over 900 employees, drew almost two million people a year, and was one of the largest attractions in Florida. A new concept at the time in which a single admission price allowed access to a variety of nightclubs, restaurants, and lounges. A weekly TV show was even broadcast from here featuring country music headliners. For many years, this was a nighttime favorite for tourists and locals.
Church Street Station had seen its heyday by the 1990’s. Bob Snow had sold his interest. Disney and Universal opened nightclub complexes and fewer tourists came downtown. In the early 2000’s with a huge decline in attendance, Church Street Station closed its doors.
Since then, Church Street always seems to be on the verge of a comeback. Great spaces like the Cheyenne Saloon are used for special events, and many of the other venues are now occupied by Hamburger Mary’s, Ceviche, and the Harry Buffalo. The Amway Center and 55 West high rise apartments bring in foot traffic. East of the tracks, Mad Cow Theater recently moved in and promising new places like craft beer spot, Eternal Tap, continue to add to the energy and nostalgia of Church Street.
The train station itself sits empty, but remains in good condition. Just as it has for 125 years, the Church Street depot continues to sit in the midst of a growing and changing downtown Orlando.
_________
Sources:
Rails Across Dixie, A History of Passenger Trains in the American South; Jim Cox 2010
Remembering Orlando, Tales from Elvis to Disney; Joy Wallace Dickinson 2006
Orlando, A Centennial History; Eve Bacon 1975
Snow and Associates websiteFlickr user: alcomike43
Tammy Wynette performing at The Cheyenne Saloon and Opera House:
In 1933 (or maybe it reads ’38), our postcard writers were in Orlando to attend a graduation at Rollins College. They stayed a few nights at the top floor of the Angebilt Hotel. The afternoon before the graduation they wrote the postcard to Kay in South Euclid, OH about their stay. It was signed “oceans of love, Daddy and Mary.”
Angebilt Hotel
The Angebilt is a great place to start this blog about Orlando’s past. An Orange Avenue landmark for 90 years, and for decades the premier hotel in Orlando. When it opened in 1923, it was a near skyscraper as the tallest building in the city at 11 floors.
A sign in the front advertised the 10th floor dining room as “The Height of Hospitality.” Aside from 250 rooms, guests could enjoy a beauty salon/barber shop, a drug store, and a cocktail lounge. With no other buildings as tall to block the view, the roof-top sky deck provided great views of Lake Eola and the area. The hotel hosted the University Club and at one time housed two radio stations.
Great Americans walked through the lobby doors during its long history. Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and Thomas Edison, all stayed once at the Angebilt during a trip to Edison’s home in Fort Myers. In the early 60’s, Joan Crawford was on the board of Pepsi and attended a reception held in the ballroom for the soda company.
The hotel faced hardship at times. The early owner filed bankruptcy within months of the hotel opening and it changed hands within its first year. Decades later in the forties, a hurricane destroyed the top floor ballroom. By the ’70s, the elegance was long gone and it attracted a less upscale clientele.
In the 1990’s with the hotel no longer in operation, the building was converted into a temporary courthouse. This was while the new Orange County Courthouse was under construction.
The Angebilt Hotel in the 1930’s and the building today.
What’s There Today
The Angebilt still stands on Orange Avenue looking much like it did 90 years ago. The decorative “A” can still be found on the entry way. The lobby has been restored to its original style and is often decorated with fresh flowers. CoLab Orlando, which provides shared office space for creative and technical professionals, is based here. Two business on the ground floor generate business at lunch and in the evenings. Finnhenry’s is on one corner and a Subway on the other.
Although it would be more appealing to see something other than a sandwich chain at the base, The Angebilt is a great example of a landmark building being redefined to keep its place in the community and remain part of its heritage.
Sources:
A Guide to Historic Orlando; Steve Rajtar, The History Press, 2006 Orlando Magazine, March 2007
![Church Street Station - Forgotten in the mid 70's[Source: Flickr:alcomike43]](https://orlandoretro.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/church-street-2.jpg)
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